"The historical saga contained in the Bible— from Abraham’s encounter with God and his journey to Canaan, to Moses’ deliverance of the children of Israel from bondage, to the rise and fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah— was not a miraculous revelation, but a brilliant product of the human imagination. It was first conceived— as recent archaeological findings suggest— during the span of two or three generations, about twenty-six hundred years ago. Its birthplace was the kingdom of Judah, a sparsely settled region of shepherds and farmers, ruled from an out-of-the-way royal city precariously perched in the heart of the hill country on a narrow ridge between steep, rocky ravines."

"archaeology has produced a stunning, almost encyclopedic knowledge of the material conditions, languages, societies, and historical developments of the centuries during which the traditions of ancient Israel gradually crystallized, spanning roughly six hundred years— from about 1000 to 400 BCE. Most important of all, the textual insights and the archaeological evidence have combined to help us to distinguish between the power and poetry of biblical saga and the more down-to-earth events and processes of ancient Near Eastern history.

Sam in WV, thanks for these videos. Lots of interesting information coming out of studies, archeological, sociological, historical and linguistic.

I like Dr. Hector Avalos, especially his video on violence. I'll look it up.

One of my critics rebuked me for blasphemy, using the usual vile language, that god is a god of peace, love, and brotherhood.

Why, then do we have this report in the old testament? This does not sound like peace, love and brotherhood to me. It sounds more like prejudice for the intent of occupation of a piece of land. Hardly a noble justification for killing, hatred and community.

Deuteronomy 20

…16"Only in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.

17"But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the LORD your God has commanded you,

18”so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the LORD your God

Thanks for posting this. I have also been following Prof. Finkelstein's work on Youtube and have found it very enlightening. I was especially interested the political aspects of the Book of Josiah which were written to provide prophetic justification for King Josiah of Judah's bid to annex the wealthy kingdom of Israel. Read in this context of two rival kingdoms, Judah in the south & Israel in the north, all the vitriol hurled against "Israel" throughout Josiah makes sense. Perhaps Spin Doctor is actually the oldest profession.